Spinal FrontiersPowered by NSpineThe books that shaped spine surgery. Historic works old enough to be out of copyright link to free full text on the Internet Archive or in national library collections; out-of-print modern classics link to a catalogue record, so you can find a library or second-hand copy.
Historic books, free to read
Know another old spine book? If you come across a historic or classic spine book we have not listed, tell us at spinalfrontiers@nspine.com.
- De humani corporis fabrica libri septem1543
De humani corporis fabrica libri septem
Andreas Vesalius · 1543 · Internet Archive
The founding work of modern anatomy, with the first accurate illustrated description of the human vertebral column.
Read the full text free → - Orthopaedia1743
Orthopaedia: or the Art of Correcting and Preventing Deformities in Children, vol. 1
Nicolas Andry de Boisregard · 1743 · Internet Archive
The English translation of the 1741 French work that coined the word 'orthopaedics' and discussed the prevention of spinal deformity in children.
Read the full text free → - Remarks on that Kind of Palsy of the Lower Limbs, which is Frequently Found to Accompany a Curvature of the Spine1779
Remarks on that Kind of Palsy of the Lower Limbs, which is Frequently Found to Accompany a Curvature of the Spine
Percivall Pott · 1779 · Internet Archive
Pott's classic account of paraplegia with angular spinal curvature, the condition now known as Pott's disease (spinal tuberculosis).
Read the full text free → - Farther Remarks on the Useless State of the Lower Limbs, in Consequence of a Curvature of the Spine1782
Farther Remarks on the Useless State of the Lower Limbs, in Consequence of a Curvature of the Spine
Percivall Pott · 1782 · Internet Archive
Pott's supplement to his 1779 treatise, adding further cases and pathological observations.
Read the full text free → - On the Nature and Treatment of the Distortions to which the Spine, and Bones of the Chest, are Subject1823
On the Nature and Treatment of the Distortions to which the Spine, and Bones of the Chest, are Subject
John Shaw · 1823 · Internet Archive
One of the first British books devoted to spinal deformity, written by the Middlesex Hospital surgeon John Shaw.
The folio atlas of plates was issued separately and is not part of this scan. Shaw's 1825 supplement, 'Further observations on the lateral or serpentine curvature of the spine', is at https://archive.org/details/b33092424_0001
Read the full text free → - Pathological and Practical Observations on Spinal Diseases1827
Pathological and Practical Observations on Spinal Diseases
Edward Harrison · 1827 · Internet Archive
An early British monograph on spinal disease and deformity by Edward Harrison, who treated spinal deformity with recumbency and manual pressure.
Read the full text free → - The Genuine Works of Hippocrates, vol. 21849
The Genuine Works of Hippocrates, vol. 2 (includes 'On the Articulations')
Hippocrates; translated by Francis Adams · 1849 · Internet Archive
Adams's Sydenham Society translation of the Hippocratic surgical works; 'On the Articulations' (On Joints) contains the earliest Western account of spinal curvature and its treatment by traction and pressure.
Read the full text free → - The Mechanical Treatment of Angular Curvature, or Pott's Disease of the Spine1863
The Mechanical Treatment of Angular Curvature, or Pott's Disease of the Spine
Charles Fayette Taylor · 1863 · Internet Archive
Taylor's description of the back brace for spinal tuberculosis that became known as the Taylor brace.
Read the full text free → - Lectures on the Pathology and Treatment of Lateral and Other Forms of Curvature of the Spine1865
Lectures on the Pathology and Treatment of Lateral and Other Forms of Curvature of the Spine
William Adams · 1865 · Internet Archive
Adams's lectures on the pathology of scoliosis, including the vertebral rotation that the forward-bending test named after him shows.
Read the full text free → - Spinal Disease and Spinal Curvature1877
Spinal Disease and Spinal Curvature: Their Treatment by Suspension and the Use of the Plaster of Paris Bandage
Lewis A. Sayre · 1877 · Internet Archive
Sayre's account of correcting the spine by suspension and holding it in a plaster-of-Paris jacket, a method widely used for decades.
Read the full text free → - The Diagnosis of Diseases of the Spinal Cord1880
The Diagnosis of Diseases of the Spinal Cord
W. R. Gowers · 1880 · Internet Archive
Gowers's concise guide to localising spinal cord disease; it is commonly credited with the first description of the ascending tract later named after him.
Read the full text free → - A Case of Tumour of the Spinal Cord1888
A Case of Tumour of the Spinal Cord: Removal; Recovery
W. R. Gowers, Victor Horsley · 1888 · Internet Archive
The offprint from the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions reporting the first successful removal of a spinal cord tumour, operated on by Horsley at Queen Square in 1887.
This is a 96-page reprinted journal paper, not a book.
Read the full text free → - A Treatise on Orthopedic Surgery1890
A Treatise on Orthopedic Surgery (1st edition)
Edward H. Bradford, Robert W. Lovett · 1890 · Internet Archive
The first edition of the leading American orthopaedic textbook of its time, by two Boston surgeons, with extensive chapters on spinal tuberculosis and scoliosis.
A later edition (1907) is at https://archive.org/details/treatiseonorthop00braduoft
Read the full text free → - Die Verletzungen der Wirbelsäule zugleich als Beitrag zur Physiologie des menschlichen Rückenmarks1896
Die Verletzungen der Wirbelsäule zugleich als Beitrag zur Physiologie des menschlichen Rückenmarks (section II: Die Läsionen des Rückenmarks bei Verletzungen der Wirbelsäule)
Theodor Kocher (Bern) · 1896 · Bavarian State Library (MDZ)
Kocher's classic study of spinal cord injury in vertebral fractures, relating the level of injury to the neurological findings; published as a long article filling much of the first volume of Mittheilungen aus den Grenzgebieten der Medizin und Chirurgie (pp. 415–660). The link opens at its first page.
Read the full text free → - Lateral Curvature of the Spine and Round Shoulders1907
Lateral Curvature of the Spine and Round Shoulders
Robert W. Lovett · 1907 · Internet Archive
Lovett's influential monograph on scoliosis, including his experimental work on how spinal flexion and rotation are coupled.
Later editions (e.g. 1914) are also on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/lateralcurvature00loveuoft
Read the full text free → - Bone-Graft Surgery1915
Bone-Graft Surgery
Fred H. Albee · 1915 · Internet Archive
Albee's book on bone grafting, including his 1911 technique of spinal fusion with a tibial graft for Pott's disease, one of the first spinal fusion operations.
Albee died in 1945, so the book is public domain in the UK and EU (life + 70 years) as well as the US.
Read the full text free →
Out-of-print classics
- Die Technik der Knochenbruchbehandlung1929
Die Technik der Knochenbruchbehandlung
Lorenz Böhler · 1929 · Wilhelm Maudrich, Vienna
The Vienna trauma surgeon's founding textbook of conservative fracture treatment, including his method of reducing spinal fractures in hyperextension and holding them in a plaster jacket; it ran to many editions and was translated widely, the English edition appearing as The Treatment of Fractures in the same year.
Still in copyright in Europe (Böhler died in 1973), so only library and second-hand copies are available.
Find a copy → - The Human Spine in Health and Disease1959
The Human Spine in Health and Disease (1st American edition of 'Die gesunde und die kranke Wirbelsäule')
Georg Schmorl, Herbert Junghanns · 1959 · Grune & Stratton
The English translation of the classic German pathological and radiological study, built on Schmorl's large autopsy series of spines, which gave its name to Schmorl's nodes.
A second American edition followed in 1971. The German 4th edition (Thieme, 1957) is catalogued at https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xg4fpkx4
Find a copy → - The Arteries and Veins of the Human Spinal Cord from Birth1975
The Arteries and Veins of the Human Spinal Cord from Birth
G. F. Dommisse · 1975 · Churchill Livingstone
A definitive anatomical study of the blood supply of the spinal cord, which described the thoracic 'critical vascular zone' that matters in deformity surgery.
Find a copy → - Spinal Cord Injuries1976
Spinal Cord Injuries: Comprehensive Management and Research (2nd edition)
Sir Ludwig Guttmann · 1976 · Blackwell Scientific Publications
The summation of Guttmann's Stoke Mandeville approach to the comprehensive management of spinal cord injury, written by the founder of the Paralympic movement.
Google Books record: https://books.google.com/books?id=SBi6zQEACAAJ
Find a copy → - Spinal Deformities1977
Spinal Deformities
Robert Roaf · 1977 · Pitman Medical
A monograph by the Liverpool orthopaedic surgeon Robert Roaf, known for his research on vertebral growth and its mechanical control, setting out a mechanical and growth-based account of spinal deformity.
Google Books labels this 1977 record (ISBN 0272793795) '2nd edition'. The Loughborough University catalogue lists a second edition dated 1980. Check which edition to cite.
Find a copy → - Backache1977
Backache
Ian Macnab · 1977 · Williams & Wilkins
A concise and widely read clinical classic on assessing and treating low back pain by the Toronto surgeon Ian Macnab.
Later editions, revised by others, appeared as 'Macnab's Backache' (4th edition 2006). The 1977 original is the classic edition.
Find a copy → - Adverse Mechanical Tension in the Central Nervous System1978
Adverse Mechanical Tension in the Central Nervous System: An Analysis of Cause and Effect; Relief by Functional Neurosurgery
Alf Breig · 1978 · Almqvist & Wiksell (distributed by John Wiley)
Breig's research on how the spinal cord and nerve roots stretch and slacken with spinal movement became a foundation of what is now called neurodynamics.
The Google Books record shows 1974, but the book is usually cited as 1978. Check the date before publishing.
Find a copy → - Surgery of the Spine1983
Surgery of the Spine: Surgical Anatomy and Operative Approaches
René Louis (translated by E. Goldstein) · 1983 · Springer-Verlag
A richly illustrated atlas of surgical anatomy and operative approaches to the whole spine by the Marseille spine surgeon René Louis.
The print edition is long out of print, but Springer still licenses an eBook (ISBN 978-3-642-81808-0) to libraries. Google Books gives the publication date as December 1982.
Find a copy → - Management of Spinal Deformities1984
Management of Spinal Deformities
Robert A. Dickson, David S. Bradford (eds) · 1984 · Butterworths
A multi-author review of deformity surgery at the height of the Harrington and Luque instrumentation era, published in the Butterworths International Medical Reviews series.
Find a copy → - Managing Low Back Pain1988
Managing Low Back Pain (2nd edition)
W. H. Kirkaldy-Willis (ed.) · 1988 · Churchill Livingstone
Sets out Kirkaldy-Willis's three-phase 'degenerative cascade' (dysfunction, instability, stabilisation), which still shapes how lumbar degeneration is taught.
First edition 1983. Later editions went up to a 4th (1999, with T. N. Bernard). Google's record is ambiguous between '2nd' and '4th' in different fields; the ISBN 0443085358 / 1988 matches the 2nd edition in the Penn library catalogue.
Find a copy → - Clinical Biomechanics of the Spine1990
Clinical Biomechanics of the Spine (2nd edition)
Augustus A. White III, Manohar M. Panjabi · 1990 · J.B. Lippincott
The foundational English-language text on spinal biomechanics, including the authors' widely used checklists for clinical instability; the first edition appeared in 1978.
Find a copy → - Moe's Textbook of Scoliosis and Other Spinal Deformities1995
Moe's Textbook of Scoliosis and Other Spinal Deformities (3rd edition)
John E. Lonstein, David S. Bradford, Robert B. Winter, James W. Ogilvie (eds), after John H. Moe · 1995 · W.B. Saunders
The standard scoliosis textbook of the Minnesota school, descended from Moe's 'Scoliosis and Other Spinal Deformities' (1978); the 1995 third edition was its last.
Find a copy → - The Pediatric Spine2001
The Pediatric Spine: Principles and Practice (2nd edition)
Stuart L. Weinstein (ed.) · 2001 · Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
A comprehensive multi-author reference on the whole range of paediatric spinal disorders, edited by Stuart Weinstein of the University of Iowa; the first edition appeared in 1994.
Last edition. No new print edition since 2001, but the text is still hosted on Wolters Kluwer's Ovid platform for institutional subscribers.
Find a copy →
How we compile this page
Full-text links go only to scans that are free and legitimately available, almost all from the Internet Archive (several digitised by the Wellcome Library). Books still in copyright get a catalogue link only. Dates are those of the edition linked. Know a classic we have missed? Tell us at spinalfrontiers@nspine.com.